Ford spearheads energy saving group

LAS VEGAS – The Ford Motor Co. is spearheading an unusual collaboration with home appliance, renewable energy and power management companies to get American homeowners to use electricity more efficiently.

At the International CES here, the auto maker on Tuesday is announcing the formation of MyEnergi Lifestyle, with appliance maker Whirlpool, energy companies Eaton and SunPower and semiconductor firm Infineon. Also in the group is Nest Labs, the Palo Alto maker of a high-tech home thermostat.

To be sure, all of those companies have a vested interest in selling their products, and Ford still sells far more gasoline-powered cars than hybrid or plug-in electric vehicles like the C-Max Energi.

But Ford executive Mike Tinskey said the automaker did notice trends while researching power grid information to help customers who bought its plug-ins cars to lower their home energy bills. He said Ford believed that database could be the start of something bigger.

“Why wouldn’t the same concepts apply to other home devices,” said Tinskey, Ford’s global director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure.

Ford worked with Georgia Tech researchers on a computer model that calculated the energy footprint of an average-sized home in San Jose.

The researchers then applied variables, such as the homeowner replacing one of two all-gasoline powered cars with a plug-in car and buying new home appliances that shift heavy usage to discounted, off-peak electricity hours, typically between midnight and 5 a.m.

Plugging into that Georgia Tech database could, for example, help refrigerator makers design more efficient products that also ran power-eating defrost and ice maker cycles “in the middle of the night when the rates are lower,” Tinskey said.

The researchers predicted a typical American family could cut energy costs by 60 percent and see a 55 percent reduction in its CO2 footprint.